


two drums in the grey

by brandywine421



Series: backdate your baggage [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-21 18:05:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14290377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brandywine421/pseuds/brandywine421
Summary: “Standard disclaimer – you are not on the first or second string of our emergency call trees,” Cisco said.“So why are you here?” Barry yawned.“We’ve got a new speedster. Wally West,” Caitlin said, preemptively wincing.





	two drums in the grey

**Author's Note:**

> Must read the first of the series for this to make much sense. Barry & Oliver try this cohabitation aka codependency thing out.

_So we lay in the dark,_  
_We've got nothing to say -_  
_Just the beating of hearts,_  
_Like two drums in the grey._

  
_I don't know what we're doing,_  
_I don't know what we've done._  
_But the fire is coming,_  
_So I think we should run._

 

 

 

  
“Too early for guests. Who the fuck is ringing our doorbell?”

Oliver smeared sleep out of his eyes and tried to focus on anything other than the bright sunlight. “We have a doorbell on our apartment?”

“A mistake I’ll be remedying today,” Barry mumbled.

It took a moment for Oliver to process which city he was waking up in. Living in 2 places was great for their sex life but not so good for having his wits on demand for wake up calls. He patted the pillow covering Barry’s face and headed to the door to win boyfriend points.

“Oh, shit, you’re here – damn, no questions allowed, but damn what happened to you?  Um. Hi, Oliver.” Cisco had a girlfriend, he thought, but he stared like he’d never seen a bare male chest before.  

He blinked at Cisco. “Emergency?”

“So much,” Cisco replied weakly. “Can I come in?”

“Start the coffee, I’ll see if Bear wants to see you,” Oliver consented with a sigh, heading back into the bedroom where Barry had commandeered all the blankets to hide him from morning. “We’re in Central and Cisco wants a playdate.”

“Veto,” the blankets replied.

“I told him to make coffee. He said it’s an emergency.”

“Ugh. It’s too early for that,” Barry groaned, reaching out to grab his wrist and tug him back toward the bed. “Tell him to come back later.”

“He’s your friend, not mine,” Oliver replied. “Go play nice and bring me coffee once you’ve found out what’s blowing up this early.”

The doorbell sounded again and he resigned himself to a day of unwelcome emergencies.

“We’re getting rid of that doorbell stat,” Barry sighed. “Coffee?”

“Yep. Pants first,” Oliver suggested as he yanked the covers off the destroyed bed.

Barry followed him into the bathroom after a few moments of indecision and they joined Cisco and the coffee in the kitchen. He’d already let in their second too-early guest but at least Caitlin had mugs of coffee ready for them.

“Standard disclaimer – you are not on the first or second string of our emergency call trees,” Cisco said.

“So why are you here?” Barry yawned.

“We’ve got a new speedster. Wally West,” Caitlin said, preemptively wincing.

“Wait – Barry’s brother?” Oliver caught on as Barry lowered his coffee mug to the counter with a frozen expression.

“Yeah, it was a glitch – a total one-off accident that happened when we were dealing with a Meta from Earth-5,” Cisco started.

“Don’t take us on a tangent you won’t be able to bring us back from,” Oliver warned, locking eyes with Barry. “Bear.”

“You made Wally a speedster,” Barry stated.

Cisco twitched nervously. “It was an accident, it wasn’t – we didn’t even know it was possible all the others – “

“Stop,” Barry said. “There are others?”

“In the multiverse, yeah.  Every Earth we’ve found has a speedster, it’s a whole _thing_. Your secret’s totally still safe,” Cisco started earning a sharp look from Caitlin. “Um.”

“Multiverse,” Oliver tested out the word. “I’m not sure I want to know what that entails.”

“We've met other metahumans with super-speed, usually asking for the Flash - but once we tell them that you don't have your speed, they drop the subject and let us help instead,” Caitlin said slowly. “Because you don't have your speed, right?"

"Wally," Barry said. "Tell me what's wrong with him."

"He's fine, completely healthy - not as fast as you, nobody's that fast, but he also has an overprotective father camping out in our lab refusing to leave until we fix it and - well, we can't fix it," Cisco blurted out. "Please tell me how to convince Detective West not to kill us."

"Joe didn't know you were fast?" Oliver confirmed, glancing at Barry.

"God, no, just the guys at STAR Labs," Barry said. "We were already on the outs when I went into the coma; we only started talking again after I woke up."

Oliver found it hard to plot the timeline of Barry's life in the five years he was 'lost at sea'.  Joe and Iris had been such a major part of his life in undergrad - sending care packages and plane tickets for holidays when Barry would scrape for spare cash. But it was only after Oliver went missing that Barry graduated and Joe blocked him for law enforcement jobs that he swore was the root of the harsh feelings - not the death of wrongly-accused Henry Allen or the coma or the man in yellow.

It was still difficult to reconcile Barry's estrangement from his family in his memory. The Wests - even minus a mother and Wally at the time - had been the dream family for Oliver and his friends in Starling. Laurel and Sara loved their detective father, but Joe West was the _Ideal_ of a good dad.

"I can't go in there, Cisco. I can't go in that room again," Barry said, splaying his hands on the counter as a stray spark of red danced across his knuckles.

"You've been lying to us. You still have your speed - " Caitlin snapped.

Oliver held up one finger and the room went silent. "Do not raise your voice at Barry. Before nine a.m."

"Thank you. I won't apologize for hiding it," Barry said with a stunned expression. "I'm sorry, Caitlin."

"We could have helped you understand it, control it, like Dr. Stein and Ronnie, like Cisco. Like me," she added softly.

"We know you ping the radar, Caitlin, we just respect our friends' privacy," Oliver said, squeezing Barry's shoulder and trying to catch his attention. "Hey."

"I can't go in there. It's Wally and Joe - but - I _can't_ ," Barry shuddered.

"We completely renovated the place, the medical wing's nowhere near where it went down," Cisco said quietly.

"Will you come see me in jail?" Barry asked.

"Every day," Oliver replied automatically. "But we're not doing that."

Cisco cleared his throat. "Um, my friends know that Dr. Wells was an evil imposter from the future and that I killed him."

"You killed him?" Barry whispered. The man in yellow. Oliver had never heard Barry say his name.

"Yup, totally. He stole your speed, tried to rip my heart out and then he died, disappeared," Cisco said shakily.

That wasn't the story Barry had told him.

"You don't have to talk about it, Cisco. He doesn't have to talk about it, nobody faults him for what happened," Caitlin insisted.

"Oh God, you didn't have to take the blame for me," Barry said.

"I know, and believe me, I wouldn't if I had a better cover story but it was just me and you and Wells and I had to tell the team something. They're my team, Barry, I had to tell them as much of the truth as I could," Cisco replied, face dark with emotion Oliver didn't want to map.

"Executive decision, all further discussion of what may or may not have happened to this Dr. Wells is off the table because we are not turning this into a courtroom narrative. Off the table," Oliver said.

"Don't raise your voice before nine a.m.," Barry replied after a beat.

"Sorry," Oliver said. But he totally wasn't.

"Okay, so I don't know how you get to make executive decisions when you don't even work for STAR Labs, but I'll second the motion for now. Barry - " Caitlin turned to him.

"It's Wally, you know I'm coming to help. And you can run tests if you think it'll help him, or put Joe's mind at ease," Barry conceded.

"I don't want his name in any database," Oliver cut in.

Cisco rolled his eyes, recovering his composure. "I'm still the boss and everything's confidential. His name's not even on the paychecks we send him."

"Says the guy that's _accidentally_ giving random people superpowers," Oliver countered.

"Stand down, Ollie," Barry said, tapping his wrist and pulling him flush against him at the counter. "You still want to be all-in?"

"Yeah, but I'm going to strongly suggest we move to Starling full time when our lease comes up," Oliver muttered.

 

* * *

 

"Honest to God, I never thought I'd have to see this place again," Barry said, leading Oliver and Caitlin into Wally's curtained room.

"Barry? What are you doing here?" Joe asked, visibly surprised.

"Are you here to get me out? Do you have power like that around here?" Wally talked over him.

Barry hugged Joe and tried not to think this would be for the last time. They'd come too far for that. He tapped knuckles with Wally. "I actually own this place on paper, but I'm not the boss by any means. Caitlin asked me to come by for a consult."

"Consult?" Joe clarified. Caitlin scribbled on her tablet as she checked Wally's monitors before drifting toward the door.

Oliver cleared his throat. "I'm going to go check out the cameras with Caitlin, we'll make sure you guys aren't disturbed."

Barry accepted his soft kiss and the finger squeeze that meant 'call if you need me' before he was alone with his foster father and quasi-brother.

"What's that about?" Wally asked.

Barry sat down and met Joe's steady gaze. "So, I didn't sign off for you to have access to my full medical history when I was here after the coma. I actually signed paperwork to have it all off the record when metahumans became a thing."

"But, you're not a meta," Joe said carefully.

He shrugged. "My DNA's all twisted up now, I'm definitely a meta. It's a story that I'm nowhere near ready to tell, but I've had superspeed since the particle accelerator exploded. I know my speed can be *taken* by force, but -"

Joe grabbed him by both wrists, stricken. "Tell me."

"He has to be careful. I can teach him how to use it, how to live with it. But he has to be careful," Barry insisted.

"That's not what I mean. Who - "

"Dad, he's bugging out enough, give him some space," Wally said. Joe's grip slowly relaxed but didn't let go.

"Oh. That problem's been resolved. Most of the people that work here think I lost my speed while resolving the problem, but that's not true. He didn't take my speed and he's no longer a problem," Barry said.

"We won't tell your speed secret, if that's what's got you all freaked," Wally said.

He must look freaked if Wally could tell.

"Oliver knows?" Joe asked quietly.

"Sex can be an issue that I'll discuss with Wally privately, so yes, he knows," Barry admitted. He turned his full attention to Wally. "Run too fast and you'll tear through the fabric of time - that's what the bad guy was training me for. Too slow and you'll get caught on all the cameras ever. You have to watch your diet, you're a sprinter not a marathon runner and you will run out of fuel and drop into hypoglycemic shock if you don't learn your limits. This is a gift, it's only a curse if you don't get on top of it."

"See, Dad? Told you I was going to be fine," Wally said, taking the important bits from his rambling morale boost.

Barry turned his hands so he could squeeze Joe's wrists instead of being trapped by them. "Joe, he's fine. Better than fine. He just has pay a little more attention to how he takes care of himself. You'll have to budget for extra groceries."

"And Barry's fine, too and he said he's going to help," Wally added.

"Right. I have some issues with this place in general. There's a reason my office is in a separate wing from all this, but it's just a place. You and Joe are family," Barry said.

"I wish I had known, Bear," Joe whispered.

Barry took a deep breath. "Okay, so, _before_. I had a lot of stuff going on...I was mad at you about the job blackout, my real father was killed in prison and I was still considered a nutjob for thinking Oliver was alive and my dad was innocent. My headspace was not a happy place when I got struck by lightning and woke up in a science lab, you know?"  He lowered his voice so it didn't seem like he was making more of a scene.

"But there was this guy, this doctor that helped me figure everything out. Had nice little boxes for my baggage, told me I was a hero, that I would save the world one person at a time if I just tried a little harder, ran a little faster...he told me everything I thought I needed to hear. Oliver said it's called 'grooming'," he added.

"He wanted you to _tear_ through _time_?" Joe asked softly.

"He wanted my speed so he could do it himself. Cisco's smart as hell, though, he figured it out before - and we resolved the problem. He was from the future, another timeline, and now he doesn't exist at all," Barry said. "We can do amazing things with our powers, but that doesn't mean we should do things like change history or mindfuck people."

"I definitely don't want to do that," Wally said as Joe pulled Barry into a tight hug.

"Wally is going to be fine, Joe, and I'm getting there, too," Barry said. "Now, will you promise to stop scaring the scientists and give Wally permission to let off the brakes?"

"That depends. What are we going to tell Iris?" Joe asked.

"Barry should tell her, she never gets mad at him," Wally offered.

"Let's get through the next couple of hours before we start worrying about that," he groaned.

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Lyric tags & title belong from "Run" by Daughter.


End file.
